What exactly is the objective?

Hey Reader,

As a classroom teacher, every lesson was anchored by a learning objective. I'm not suggesting you start lesson planning, but I do firmly believe in knowing the lesson objective.

Suppose your kids can tell you what a tadpole looks like, explain why it needs water, and describe what changes as it becomes a frog.

Then it’s time to write a paragraph with all that information.

The frog conversation is over.

You’re helping with spelling. Your child is trying to decide how to begin. The sentence they just said aloud has somehow disappeared between their mouth and the paper.

From across the table, it can look as though they’ve lost interest in frogs.

But that writing assignment asks for quite a few things at once:

• remembering the information,
• choosing an order,
• making sentences,
• spelling words, and
• getting those words onto the page.

Those skills matter. They also add demands that weren’t part of the conversation.

When an activity meets resistance, it helps to know what you wanted your kid to learn (the objective) and what else the activity asks them to do.

For one activity today, finish these two thoughts:

“I wanted them to learn or practice…”

“To complete this activity, they also have to…”

Keep the first answer specific. “Explain how a frog changes” gives you more to work with than “do science.”

The second answer might reveal something you hadn’t counted. Reading the directions independently.

Remembering several steps. Holding scissors comfortably. Sitting still while someone else takes a turn.

You don’t have to redesign the activity immediately. First, get clear about the demands.

If the goal is understanding a frog’s life cycle, a conversation may already show you something important.

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If the goal is writing a paragraph, your kids may need help with that skill, even when the science makes sense.

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That clarity lets you respond to the part that needs support without overlooking the learning that’s already there.

Inside the Homeschool Success Circle this week, moms are locating where their kids begin to pull away: at the start, in the middle, or when it’s time to finish.

We’re using that detail to choose one small experiment.

Then, I help them think through whether the adjustment needed is support getting started, a different amount of writing, or something else your family’s evidence points toward.

​Join the Homeschool Success Circle and get this level of support for your homeschool.

You don’t need a completely different homeschool every time an activity gets hard.

Understanding what the activity asks is a useful place to begin.

Christy's Corner 🐝

What extra demand appears when you separate the learning goal from the steps needed to complete the activity?